Help with Bhagavad-Gita assignment

[Torchwood]

Hi. As part of my Uni course I have to write a three thousand word essay on: Show (textual) evidence that the Bhagavad Gita argues for, or against, a notion of ‘Desireless Action’

I'm finding this quite a epic task myself as there is a lot to get though, The Gita itself is interesting and I look forward to reading it in depth but with only a week to go before the essay is due I realize I have to be picky with my research as there really isn't the time to fully read everything.

What I'm asking for is any hints or tips about the Gita itself that might help with the essay. I'm not after people to write the essay for me, I'm happy to do the research and will carry on working on this assignment after this post. But if anyone could provide nods towards parts to look at or what passages might be relevant to study would be helpful. Also any websites that has information although I have read though a couple already.
I'm also interested in any opinions on the Gita and the idea of Desireless Action to help me understand it better both for the assignment and as developing myself when I come to read it fully.

Thanks

[Xan]

There are many translations of the Bhagavad Gita, some easier to understand than others. One you might find helpful as it's written for the modern Western mind with lots of explanation is by Stephen Mitchell.

The essence of desireless action is.... The human ego-mind tries to manipulate the world around to fit its hopes and avoid its fears and maintain its own limited self-identity.

In discovering one's true nature, their true self or inner being and surrendering into that, those egoic desires fade away into acting from a sense of wholeness and fulfillment instead.

How you could stretch that into 3000 words, I don't know.


Xan

IIRC the question which the essay should be based on is answered in a roundabout way in the first chapter of the Gita.

This looks like an excellent resource, with summaries of chapters and commentaries by different people on each verse.

http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/

[Torchwood]

Originally Posted by Xan

There are many translations of the Bhagavad Gita, some easier to understand than others. One you might find helpful as it's written for the modern Western mind with lots of explanation is by Stephen Mitchell.

The essence of desireless action is.... The human ego-mind tries to manipulate the world around to fit its hopes and avoid its fears and maintain its own limited self-identity.

In discovering one's true nature, their true self or inner being and surrendering into that, those egoic desires fade away into acting from a sense of wholeness and fulfillment instead.

How you could stretch that into 3000 words, I don't know.


Xan

Maybe not 3000 words but I was able to take the essence of your post and use it to complete the introduction which was a great help. Thank you.

[Xan]

You're welcome, Torchwood.

There's a lot to learn from the Gita if you really get into it.


Xan

[Torchwood]

Well I have made great progress with the assignment with roughly only another 800 words to go which I should be able to do with the number of examples I have left. I've used up to chapter six and I believe some of the verses in chapter eighteen deal with desireless action.

However I've also started doing my conclusion and summing up of the gita and while I can see that from a hindu perspective the gita and desireless action is good because it can lead to salvation and breaking the circle of birth and rebirth I'm not quite sure what lessons a non Hinsu may get from it. So is there anyone here who uses the lesson of desireless action for other reasons or know why someone might. I've kind of got the idea in my mind but I'm struggling to really be able to write it down.

Thanks

I advice you read books on bhagavad Gita like Bhagavad Gita As It Is COMPACT ,Bhagavad-gita As It Is Wholesale -- Case of 20 ,

These books really Help you in assignments

[peteyzen]

desireless action, means acting without an eye on the fruits of the action, doing the right thing without wanting the spin offs of the action you are performing. This sounds easy but is very hard and if we aren`t careful, we can perform actions which are really aimed at `getting something`.
As krishna explains `yoga of action is superior to renunciation of action,` but this is because it is harder to act without one eye on our own desires behind the action. But it is this training of acting without desire that will liberate the yogi.
Krishna`s yoga teaches non attachment , thru non attachment to the fruits of our actions man can leave this world and move beyond the human condition. But in normal life non attachment can be a very powerful tool as well. Lets say you have just designed a lovely piece of artwork and you send it to a client, they then steal it and use it without paying you. If you are not attached to it, there is no personal pain for you, you accrue no further karma by getting angry and upset. You just let it go.
Life is easier, when you are not attached to the fruits of your labour.

The comment I posted has disappeared.

Third chapter of the Gita deals with action.

And that is designated in the Bhagavadgita as ‘yajna karma’, action performed as a sacrifice. [...] The obligation to perform a duty is a call to sacrifice. And action performed as a sacrifice becomes a divine worship, and it shall not bind. Any action which is performed without the spirit of sacrifice involved in it but with the selfish intention of the fulfilment of an individual or personal motive shall bind and bring sorrow to the individual.

http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/gita/gita_08.html

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/seventeachings.asp

The following website has a study course of the Gita which may be helpful.
http://www.theosophical.org/files/re...study/Gita.pdf

And then, in a meaning-packed verse (38), Krishna tells Arjuna how to act without being snared by the consequences of action: “Taking as equal pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, gird thou for the battle; thus thou shalt not incur sin.” On one level, the simplest one, Krishna is giving Arjuna the advice of Kipling’s poem “If”:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same, . . .
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

We must act out of an
understanding of who we truly are.

Originally Posted by Torchwood

However I've also started doing my conclusion and summing up of the gita and while I can see that from a hindu perspective the gita and desireless action is good because it can lead to salvation and breaking the circle of birth and rebirth I'm not quite sure what lessons a non Hinsu may get from it. So is there anyone here who uses the lesson of desireless action for other reasons or know why someone might. I've kind of got the idea in my mind but I'm struggling to really be able to write it down.

Thanks

Desireless action in one form or another is the central theme of all traditional religions. The New Testament is full of pointers to it. One of the most commonly used phrases in Islam points to it. Daoism and Buddhism, especially Zen, are other examples.